Week 25: fruity, nutty harvest cupcakes

All of a sudden fall has arrived in Washington, D.C....a little cold and windy, too. The temperature started to drop yesterday afternoon, on the way back from a wedding in Baltimore. That's when I remembered this really cool recipe in Elinor Klivan's cupcakes! book. It is a cupcake that evokes fall feeling all by itself...the colors, the aroma, the beauty of it!

Oh, something really funny happened about that wedding. I was going with a collegue of mine, Margaret, who like me is on the creative side and both of us are a bit mindless about details like directions...and could not find our invitations with the directions and other important info. Oh well. I remembered three things about the location: it was in Baltimore, at a castle, and it was on Falls Road. I googled it and found the directions, so we were golden! It said it was about 50 miles from my house. We left home at 9:30 a.m. for an 11:00 a.m. wedding. We actually got to the castle at 10:45..plenty of time to spare. We walked up and a few people were there. We went inside and signed the guest book and while Margaret was in the bathroom someone handed me a little bottle of bubbles and a program. I was looking around for someone I knew and glanced down at the program.

Uh Oh...it read Amelilia Brittany Libernini...Yikes...it should have been Melissa Sweeney (our colleague)...OMG! We were at the wrong castle! Forcing a calmness I didn't have, I casually went outside and called a couple of people also supposed to be at the wedding, but got no answer. Finally, I tried my boss. She answered right away and all I said was "we're lost!" I just couldn't admit that we had gone to the wrong castle....Well, we arrived 1/2 hour late, but luckily, the wedding was late, too. Here's what happened. It turns out that there are TWO castles on Falls Road in Baltimore...only a couple of miles apart (who would have known?)! One is called Cloisters Castle and the other is called Maryvale Castle. WE WERE WEDDING CRASHERS...this became the biggest laugh at the wedding...but it did lead to a very nice cupcake recipe, in the end!

Download the recipe: Week 25: Harvest Cupcakes PDF